RTA to give out over 5,000 international driving permits

The regional transport authority (RTA) in Ahmedabad plans to issue over 5,000 international driving permits this year.

With the number of Gujaratis going abroad increasing, the demand for international driving permits is also going up.

This will mean that the transport authority will issue almost double the number of international driving permits it issued last year. This will be the highest number of permits issued in a single year by the Ahmedabad regional transport authority.

"With the increase in demand for international driving permits, we are planning to issue over 5,000 international driving permits this year. The regional transport authority in Ahmedabad has been issuing a large numbers of international driving permits," said a senior official at the regional transport authority.

The regional transport authority has issued over 2,000 international driving permits in the financial year 2001-02 and 2002-03 each and over 2,600 international driving permits in the financial year 2003-04.

"Over 60 per cent of the people applying for the international driving permits are students and on an average, we receive around 15 applications a day. If all the papers are clear, we issue the permit on the day of application itself," said the official.

To apply for an international driving permit, a person needs to be a citizen of India with an approved passport, visa, international tickets and valid driving licence of the country.

The permit given is valid for a period of one year and Rs 500 is required as the permit fees.

The permit is not renewable. The applicant has to move a fresh plea for a new licence after expiry of the current one.

The permit issued by the authority is acceptable in over 120 countries across the world.

Most of the international driving permits issued by the authority are for countries including Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.

The permit is valid in the territory of all the contracting states with the exception of the territory of the contracting state where issued, for the period of one year from the date of issue, for the driving of vehicles included in the categories mentioned in the permit.

The authority has issued over 1,60,000 domestic learners' licence and over 60,000 smart cards in the last year.

The RTA has been issuing smart card for both driving licences as well as registration books.

However, although smart card driving licences and registration books are being provided by the authority, the RTA inspectors and the traffic cops are still not provided with the hand-held readers that can read the smart cards when a driver is stopped for traffic violations.

Once the hand-held reader is introduced, drivers violating traffic rules will be given e-challans and the offence will be registered in the smart card.

However, people who have smart card driving licences still continue to get hand-written receipts for violations and the offences are also not electronically encrypted on to the smart card.

A senior transport official said, "We are trying our best to introduce the devices soon. However, it takes some time in familiarising the system with a new concept. The hand-held readers will, however, soon be made available to the implementing authorities."